Surge damage behind us now. Looking for protection advise going forward.

[Mark McLeroy]

Well, with all the help from the members and users here, the damage from the lightning strike is behind us. Thank you all for your help. We came real close to having to shorten our season because with the heater out of commission the water was getting too cold. I am now looking to protect myself as much as possible from this happening again. At the time of the lightning strike we had NO surge protection on the house. Now I have install a surge protector at the main panel, all the sub-panels (including the Intellicenter load center), and our A/C disconnect boxes.
I am not sure where the surge entered our pool equipment. I strongly suspect it traveled from the Intellicenter to the Hybird heater along the RS-485 lines but that is just speculation on my part.
I do not have any low voltage lines running from the house to the pool equipment. The only wires running from the the outside environment to the pool equipment is AC power, ground, and a bonding wire. I believe I have done everything I can to protect the AC lines. My question is, is there a way to protect the RS-485 bus and where would it be installed. The equipment I have connected to the Intellicenter via the RS-485 bus is the Intelliflo pump, the Hybird heater, and the Intellichlor SWG. The circuit boards that were destroyed were the Intellicenter Main board, and the Hybiard heater's main board. Everything else survived (including the Intellichlor SWG surge circuit board.)
Again thank you all for your help in keeping our season alive this year.

 

[guinness]

There are RS-485 surge protectors for sale, but it's hard to assess their effectiveness.

Rs485 Lightning Security Surge Arrester Protection Device Rs-485/422 - Buy Communication Signal Surge Protector,Surge Protection Device,Rs485 Surge Arrester Product on Alibaba.com

Rs485 Lightning Security Surge Arrester Protection Device Rs-485/422 - Buy Communication Signal Surge Protector,Surge Protection Device,Rs485 Surge Arrester Product on Alibaba.com

www.alibaba.com

 

[ajw22]

There are RS-485 surge protectors for sale, but it's hard to assess their effectiveness.

Rs485 Lightning Security Surge Arrester Protection Device Rs-485/422 - Buy Communication Signal Surge Protector,Surge Protection Device,Rs485 Surge Arrester Product on Alibaba.com

Rs485 Lightning Security Surge Arrester Protection Device Rs-485/422 - Buy Communication Signal Surge Protector,Surge Protection Device,Rs485 Surge Arrester Product on Alibaba.com

www.alibaba.com

I would rather rely on this one....

RS485 Surge Suppressor / Protector

SerialComm's Industrial RS485 Surge Suppressor has 3 stages of protection & is offered with FREE World Shipping & same day EXPRESS Shipping

www.serialcomm.com

 

[Mark McLeroy]

There is a Pentair Easytouch user who posted on YouTube that he is protected to the hilt with surge protectors at all his panels, but yet his RS-485 bus keeps getting taken out. Assuming he does not have a CAT5e network cable running from his home's router or switch (assume he is just has an antenna for a wireless connection), and assuming he did not take a DIRECT lightning strike, where does the surge "come in" from???

 

[ajw22]

assuming he did not take a DIRECT lightning strike, where does the surge "come in" from???

It does not take a direct lightning strike to put a surge on a wire.

A lightning strike creates a electro magnetic pulse whose fast rising electrical fields induce high voltage pulses in unprotected coaxial cables, antennas, data communication cables, or power cables from where they can be directly transmitted to the input of electronic equipment.

Power - Surge and Lightning Protection

Power - Surge and Lightning Protection

kb.unavco.org

 

[Mark McLeroy]

Ok. After racking my brain on this (I tend to get obsessive in thought ) I have decided to go the way of passive RS-485 surge protector(s) on my system, like the one Allen shows above. Now a couple of questions, I know most of the RS-485 devices work on only 2 wires (Yellow and Green). In fact many times the instructions tell you in bold letters NOT to connect the Red and Black. Therefore, the two terminal surge protectors in those instances work well. But what about in the case of the iS4 spa control that has 6 wires (2 for the LED light). Can I use three 2 terminal surge protectors for that? Are the RS-485 surge protectors by-directional (and do they need to be)? The ones show above have a maximum BAUD rate of 1 MBPS, is that sufficient for Intellicenter? And finally, the surge protectors need to be grounded. There doesn't seem to be anywhere in the low voltage compartment to do that. I don't seem to have any other option but to run the grounding wire from the protector to the grounding bar in the high voltage compartment. Any thoughts on that?

I know this is a lot, but there is more than one user out there that has lost pentair equipment (via the RS-485 bus) on more than 1 occasion due to a storm. I just would like to do everything possible to minimize the chance of this happening again and incurring this expense again if at all possible.

Thanks everyone!!

 

[Mark McLeroy]

Ok. After racking my brain on this (I tend to get obsessive in thought ) I have decided to go the way of passive RS-485 surge protector(s) on my system, like the one Allen shows above. Now a couple of questions, I know most of the RS-485 devices work on only 2 wires (Yellow and Green). In fact many times the instructions tell you in bold letters NOT to connect the Red and Black. Therefore, the two terminal surge protectors in those instances work well. But what about in the case of the iS4 spa control that has 6 wires (2 for the LED light). Can I use three 2 terminal surge protectors for that? Are the RS-485 surge protectors by-directional (and do they need to be)? The ones show above have a maximum BAUD rate of 1 MBPS, is that sufficient for Intellicenter? And finally, the surge protectors need to be grounded. There doesn't seem to be anywhere in the low voltage compartment to do that. I don't seem to have any other option but to run the grounding wire from the protector to the grounding bar in the high voltage compartment. Any thoughts on that?

I know this is a lot, but there is more than one user out there that has lost pentair equipment (via the RS-485 bus) on more than 1 occasion due to a storm. I just would like to do everything possible to minimize the chance of this happening again and incurring this expense again if at all possible.

Thanks everyone!!

OK. I may have answered 1 of my own questions. I guess I can ground the surge protector to the metal Intellicenter case like the Intellichlor Surg board is..

 

[ajw22]

The IS4 is not a RS-485 device. It has four on/off switches plus a wire for an LED plus a common line. Those are the six wires.

 

[Mark McLeroy]

The IS4 is not a RS-485 device. It has four on/off switches plus a wire for an LED plus a common line. Those are the six wires.

AAahh. OK. So that pretty much makes all the RS-485 devices 2 wire. That helps. Thanks.